JNUSU polls 2016: Left - Alliance sweeps all seats

The Left Unity alliance, that is the All India Students Association (AISA) and Students Federation of India (SFI) swept the students’ union elections of the Jawaharlal Nehru University this year. This alliance swept off all the four posts of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) elections whose results were declared on Saturday. Together, they wrested the joint secretary’s post from the Sangh - backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) that was pushed down to third position in a contest fought on the Twitter hashtags of #StandWithJNU and #ShutDownJNU.

The Left-affiliated groups had been locked in a battle with the ABVP over dominance in the aftermath of the February 9 incident which had led to the arrest of three students, including the outgoing JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, in a sedition case. The Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association (BAPSA) was at the second place in the top three posts. The BJP-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) stood third and the Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) came last. The results also suggested the rise of the two-year-old Birsa Ambedkar Phule Student Association (BAPSA) as a significant player.

The battle for the post of JNUSU president finally turned out to be between Mohit Pandey of the AISA-SFI alliance and BAPSA's Rahul Sonpimple. For the post of Vice-President and General Secretary ABVP candidates finished third in the election, according to the election results. It was a close contest between AISA-SFI alliance’s Tabrez Alam and Pratim Ghosal of Democratic Student’s Federation(DSF) - a faction of the SFI - for the post of JNUSU Joint Secretary. The Left's victory in JNU is significant given the controversial February 9 protest which led to a numerous others. As soon as the final results were announced, hundreds of JNU students began celebrating and chanting slogans against the ABVP. “ This means there's no place for ABVP in JNU. It's the beginning of their end," an AISA activist told to the news reporter.